Las Vegas Man Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison For Committing Nearly $2 Million Business Fraud Scheme

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Las Vegas man who admitted to defrauding more than $1.8 million from victims of a business fraud scheme was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,715,475 in restitution, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich for the District of Nevada.

Jihad Anthony Zogheib, 53, pleaded guilty without a plea agreement in October 2018, to eight counts of wire fraud in connection to a fraud scheme. Zogheib was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Larry R. Hicks.

Zogheib admitted in court that, from about 2010 to about 2013, he devised a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from people falsely representing that he would use their money for business purposes. As part of the scheme, he influenced victims’ decisions by using forged business documents and fictitious emails from banks. Specifically, in February 2011, Zogheib falsely told one of his victims about forming a mobile crane company and a mobile crane leasing company. He claimed he had millions of dollars in an overseas account, but it was placed on a hold. After showing the victim a fictitious bank record showing millions of dollars on deposit, Zogheib’s dupe caused the victim into giving him $548,000 to fund the sham companies. From November 2010 to about August 2013, Zogheib defrauded two other victims by falsely claiming he was in the business of flipping real estate. He made false representations to the victims in order to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for the nonexistent real estate investments. These two victims sent Zogheib a total of $1,307,475. Zogheib immediately used the ill-gotten proceeds to fund his gambling habit and high-end lifestyle.

The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick Burns and Steven Myhre prosecuted the case.

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